Genital herpes in pregnancy doubles autism risk: study

Women who are infected with genital herpes early in their pregnancy may face twice the risk of bearing a child with autism, a team of US and Norwegian researchers said Wednesday.

Researchers examined five pathogens which have previously been shown to raise the risk of birth defects to see if there was any link between maternal infection and autism (AFP/File / MANILA BULLETIN)

The report in mSphere, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology journal, is the first to show that a woman’s immune response could have a harmful effect on the developing fetus’s brain and influence the likelihood of autism.

“We believe the mother’s immune response to herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) could be disrupting fetal central nervous system development, raising risk for autism,” said lead author Milada Mahic, a researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health.

The causes of autism spectrum disorder remain poorly understood, and researchers believe it arises from some combination of genetic and environmental influences.

As many as one in 68 US children suffer from autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder which can impair social and communication skills.

About one in five American women has genital herpes, which is incurable and is typically spread through sex.

For the current study, researchers examined five pathogens which have previously been shown to raise the risk of birth defects to see if there was any link between maternal infection and autism.